The Kimber CDP
(Custom Defensive Pistol) has been heralded as one of the best factory 1911 type
pistols ever to be put on the market. Specifically engineered for
concealed carry and as a general purpose self defense pistol, the CDP sports
many standard features once found only on custom guns. In fact, the CDP
had started out as a limited offering from Kimber of America as a semi-custom
gun for the well heeled 1911 enthusiast looking for the ultimate in an out of
the box 1911 carry pistol.

The price tags on most Kimber pistols are not for the
faint of heart, with the CDP being in about the middle of the pack for the
product line and having retail pricing in the $900 to $1000 range depending on
the buyers choices in a narrow range of options. The quality and
reputation of the pistols is such that models like the CDP seem to retain their
value quite well and represent a sound purchase for the survivor who is not
afraid to throw down some more serious cash, but still keeps an eye on retained
value.

Among the many standard features that got me on the bandwagon
for this pistol were the ambidextrous safety, meltdown treatment, full checkered
front strap, nice rosewood grips, and stainless steel internals. The frame
is aluminum, but guaranteed to be of the highest grade and will offer long life
under normal use. One really nice part of the two tone setup with
the stainless steel slide is that you are not going to get any significant
finish wear on the slide from lots of drawing from or inserting it into a
holster. An appropriate holster for this gun would be something in
good leather which would abrade the finish on a normal gun.

Although the pistol is not considered a target gun, the accuracy
it delivers is astounding. Far superior to many "target grade"
.45s on the market. A capable shooter can easily and consistently
shoot clay pigeons with this pistol at 25 yards. That is largely a
testament to the high quality standards at Kimber when it comes to assembling
parts, and the primary reason a well built 1911 is worth considerably more than
the sum of the parts that go into building the pistol. Certain labor
intensive processes simply take time and thus cost money. The
checkering is one example of an intensive process that is as much art as
function. A person who carries the Kimber CDP is as much expressing
themselves as a connoisseur of quality as much as having a tool for
defense. That has led many utilitarian shooters to refer to the CDP
as a "botique" gun, carried mainly by fashionable permit
holders.

Most models
of the CDP will come with a very bright set of fixed night sights. Don't
worry about the complex process of zeroing "fixed" sights. These
come dead on the money from the factor. The picture to the left shows what
the home defender is paying for in a pistol with trijicon sights. The
bright glow of the sights allows for aiming in the dark. Hence, the
unwanted nocturnal visitor can be dealt with effectively with a minimum of
ammunition expenditure. Unlike lasers, these types of sights will
not give away the user's position, to the naked eye, but a refraction of the
light could be seen by persons with third generation night vision
equipment.

Ok with the happy camper stuff said, the pistol is not exactly
at the level of being G_d's gift to shooters. Having bought mine at about the same time a friend
bought his Eclipse custom (one step up from the CDP, but primarily a target
pistol), we found that the Kimbers can be finicky about magazine and ammunition
combinations. I suggest that you use Kimber brand magazines and then
experiment from there. Our guns were not 100% reliable with Chip McCormick
brand 10 shot mags that all seem to work fine in my other 1911 pattern
pistols. The Kimber magazines, however, worked in all of the 1911 pistols
we had on hand for testing. I think some minor fitting and break-in
will solve this small problem. While the factory magazines are all
"8 shot" types, we found that they run a lot better on 7 rounds.
It proves fairly difficult to do a tactical magazine change by inserting a
loaded eight shot magazine with the slide forward on a loaded
chamber.

Our fine Oregon weather quickly attacked some parts of the
pistol to reveal the fairly high carbon content in some of the "stainless" components. Hence, rust set in within minutes of me
touching the barrel and side of the hammer. In fairness to Kimber,
this is usually a sign that the manufacturer is using a more durable grade of
steel on these components. Like nearly all other
handguns on the market, the Kimber still needs a bit of break-in before offering
optimum performance. Unlike many cheaper import guns of this design,
the Kimber have a lot of cast parts. People argue about what is
better since many of the new casting processes produce good parts, and the
Kimbers use mostly Chip McCormick components which a lot of gunsmiths consider
an upgrade from normal factory parts used by other companies. What I found was that nearly
all of the internal parts are finished castings. In my opinion a grade
lower than actual machined parts, albeit the best castings in the breed.

Variations in hardness can problem in keeping
consistency on the fit of the parts under hard use and I noticed a significant
deterioration in the smoothness of the trigger pull after a few days
shooting. This was attributed to me releasing the slide several times onto
an empty chamber as a step in clearing the gun at the end of a string of fire in
IDPA shooting. Such action can apparently put undue wear on highly
tuned components of these pistols, but never seemed to hurt my old Springfield
Armory .45 auto or any other handgun I have owned. I chock that up to
the bank of knowledge, that fitted parts may not stay fitted and cannot always
be equaled with parts that were broken in. Discriminating
shooters will have many of these parts replaced with better quality components
which leave me wondering why one would spend close to $1,000 on a pistol that
may well still not be perfect out of the box. I mean, if you are
going to replace half the parts in a gun, why not buy a $600 Colt and start
hacking from there? That said, many
serious shooters will often have over $1500 in a single pistol and will reach a
point that anything less will be mediocre. The Kimber being an
excellent top of the line production gun still does not elevate it out of the
realm of factory guns. I do not see the potential for
improving the gun beyond its current level to justify spending a lot more money
on it. The brand is a known quantity on the market and people
generally respect them without the need for a gunsmith workover.

The size of the pistol at first glance is the same as the Colt
Combat commander, but in fact, the slide is about 1/4" shorter. That
may not sound like much of a difference, but the gun does have a lot sweeter
balance than a standard Commander. This shorter top end combined
with the light frame makes this a very fast gun to bring into action. A
light and crisp trigger makes for quick snap shots, but I found that traditional
double taps will rarely put both rounds very close together with this
pistol. Snappy recoil and the light fast trigger will usually equate
to the second shot being significantly above the first. I suggest a
slight alteration in shooter tactics to deal with this aspect of the
gun. Either take the extra nanoseconds to aim more carefully and
take only one shot, or pay extra attention to the likely shot pattern you will
get in a double tap and never aim for the head on the first shot.

Controls like the magazine catch, safety and slide stop are
positive and crisp. That said, this is probably
not the type of pistol that would be preferred by an assault element in a field
environment. It is not built to take abuse or offer its high level
of performance under long exposure in a harsh environment. Again, I
personally see this as largely a result in the materials that went into building
this pistol.

In action, the pistol is very fast. Fast to draw and
point, fast to fire, and fast for follow up shots. Again, these are all
results of the gun being short, light and with a crisp light trigger that is
well tuned. This buys critical time in competition or a real world
confrontation where winners' and losers' actions are separated by fractions of a
second.

In conclusion, the Kimber CDP is a winner for those looking for
the near perfect balance of power and convenience in a carry gun.
The lightweight nature of the CDP series (there are three sizes) makes them
viable back-up options for a survivor or hiker who is looking to travel light
without compromising much on firepower. It is a status symbol
class 1911 and priced that way. Consider this the new
benchmark in off the shelf quality 1911 type carry pistols but far from being
the best you could have.

As an update on the article. While my first
impressions on the gun were positive, with the handling and accuracy of the CDP
being high points, reliability was a low point - to say the least. I
ended up taking the pistol to a well respected gunsmith for a tune-up and to
have him look at an issue which appeared to be a badly fitted safety. He recommended
sending it back to the factory for the repairs, since such problems are very
rare in Kimber pistols, especially their higher end "flagship models"
like the CDP and Eclipse. I called Kimber customer service
about the problem and they said "fine, send it back and we will take a look
at it". Now among experienced shooters and gun collectors, that
usually translates to "send your gun away to us and we will get around to
looking at the problem you are experiencing which is probably your own fault, on
our own time when it is convenient for us because we are busy dealing with
regular production that makes us money, not some chump with an attitude who we
already got the money from". That means usually means anything
from two weeks (average Ruger repair) to Four months (small shops like
Special Weapons). I sent the gun out by Fedex on a Friday and
figured I should give them a week before I even check up on it so I would not
seem rude to be pestering them. I checked the tracking number on the
package online and the Fedex site showed the package delivered on Monday
morning. "OK, well enough", I thought, maybe they can get
to it this week. Tuesday afternoon, an unexpected box arrived
from UPS. Not recognizing the name of the sender, I opened it up and
to my surprise, it was my CDP, apparently repaired and sent back in a
matter of hours, not days, and that done on the far opposite end of the
country. I can't even get a mirror replaced on my motorcycle
that fast. As it was, the gun was fixed up and tuned up good to
go. For that kind of customer service, it is worth noting that I
have to now consider Kimber as holding the world record for fast service on
their product. That is no light feat at all considering the
timeframes normally accompanying high end and custom tuned guns.

Cost - High, but reflective of the
parts and labor that go into the construction of these pistols. Some
would argue that you are paying for the "Kimber name" but it is
nearly impossible to find comparable features in any other US made 1911
pistol for less money.

Accessories - The CDP series come
pretty well "decked out" so accessories would be limited to
little more than some different grips or a holster. The
function of this gun is a delicate balance of fitting in the parts, so
adding stuff may actually detract from the usefulness and value of the
gun.

Mags - An unfortunate weak point with
my sample pistol. The gun seems to only function reliably with
Kimber brand magazines, although in theory all 1911 type .45 mags should
fit and function with this pistol. This is disappointing since I
would much rather prefer to use mags with a rounded basepad to facilitate
more secure fast reloading and soften the contour of the pistol when it is
in the holster.

Longevity and durability - Not known
exactly, but this 1911 variant will definitely not live as long as it's
steel framed cousins. In long term ownership, mine has not weathered
so well with normal knocks and dings one would expect to encounter with a
service gun used only occasionally. This is a gun for the well
dressed in a fairly protected environment, not hardware for the
badlands.

Power - Unquestionable stopping power,
dismal armor penetration. The .45 is strictly a short range
weapon and more appropriate for the street than the
battlefield.

Parts - Spare parts for these
pistols are readily available but often require a skilled gunsmith to
install.

Ergonomics and handling - Excellent
and enhanced by several special features. Many pistoleers
consider the 1911 grip design to be "perfect".

Popularity - The CDP was once a custom
production gun but has become a centerpiece of the Kimber product
lineup. The cost of the gun keeps it from becoming
"popular" with most shooters although it is generally based on
the most popular handgun design of all time.

Maintenance and repair - The pistol
seems particularly sensitive to any imbalance with lubrication and
maintenance. Run it dirty and dry and it will jam like
crazy. Parts are anything but drop-in in and even disassembly
for cleaning requires some skill and dexterity.

Accuracy - Absolutely phenomenal.
The main reason I did not chuck this out with the trash or sell it off to
some sucker years ago. The people at Kimber definitely have
accuracy fitting of these guns figured out.

Reliability - The test specimen has
not exhibited acceptable reliability for life and death use although this
shortcoming can be attributed to the magazines most of the
time. Expect to need some additional fitting and gunsmith
attention given to these pistols before betting your life on their
reliability.